Simon LGBT Series

Clarion ForeWord Reviews Simon's Mansion Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5 Expressive descriptions and heart-wrenching exchanges make  Simon’s Mansion  a raw LGBTQ+ novel. Past mistakes haunt a recovering drug addict in William Poe’s intense novel  Simon’s Mansion . After surviving a religious cult and cocaine addiction, all Simon wants to do is move back to the small town where he grew up and become an artist. He and his boyfriend Thad are in love, but Thad proves unhappy in Simon’s South. When Thad disappears, Simon fears that his unsavory past has come back to haunt him. He battles the twin temptations posed by cocaine and a beautiful ballet dancer and confronts old demons to rescue Thad. The story begins in Simon’s childhood, exploring the traumas he suffered and laying the groundwork for the poor but understandable choices he makes as an adult. The bulk of it occurs after Simon’s return to his childhood home, where interpersonal interactions crackle with ten...

Self-Publishing Review of Simon's Mansion Running from your present and confronting your past speak to the heart in  Simon’s Mansion , a moving work of LGBT literary fiction by William Poe. Not long out of rehab, Simon Powell returns to his hometown of Sibley, Arkansas, eager to leave behind his destructive life in Hollywood. Given his relatively young life, Simon is a man with many ex’s to his name – ex-husband of Masako, a Japanese woman he had briefly married, ex-cult member and former follower of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and ex-junkie, with cocaine and crack his drugs of choice. He’s also a former film distributor of gay porn on the run from some Spaniards, whose money Simon’s former assistant, Charlotte, had stolen. His lover, Thad, with whom Simon has had a tumultuous relationship, follows him to Sibley where they settle into the family mansion with Simon’s widowed mother, Vivian. Despite estrangement from the extended family, Simon takes a course at the local c...

San Francisco Review of Books Grady Harp Discovering how to grow up Author/artist William Poe earned his degree in art from the University of Arkansas and his degree in anthropology from the University of Nebraska and worked at eh National Museum of American Indian. The poignancy of his poetry and novels is directly related to his own history he shares in his biographical note – ‘He grew up in the American heartland and joined the Unification Church of Reverend Sun Myung Moon at eighteen. He stayed there for nearly ten years, all the while struggling to reconcile his identity as a gay man with Moon's teachings. Poe eventually left the group and pushed back against the ideology he'd at first embraced and then rejected. After recovering from drug addiction, Poe began to find peace and understanding in his art.’  This excellent book is the third volume of Poe’s SIMON series – SIMON SAYS, SIMPLE SIMON, and SIMON’S MANSION. William’s facility with language reflects his poetic se...

Simon's Mansion Kirkus Review KIRKUS REVIEW The eventful life of a troubled young gay man comes full circle in this third installment of a series.   The adventures of resilient protagonist Simon Powell continue in this novel, which charts his post-rehab existence after years of melodrama. He escaped a conservative upbringing and involvement with the Unification Church as a teenager, then intensive drug use with shady acquaintances in Southern California. Finally fed up with his string of bad luck coupled with years of poor life choices, Simon finishes a stint in rehab, then retreats to his birthplace of Sibley, Arkansas, and his family’s pre-Civil War timber mansion. Eager to recharge and reboot his life and start anew, he finds himself surrounded by ghosts of the past. Painful memories of his dead father’s judgmental criticism merge with childhood stories, all clouding Simon’s mind as he and his Los Angeles boyfriend, Thad (also fresh from a drug dependency prog...

Simon's Mansion Press Release In “Simon’s Mansion” (ISBN 1729078435), the third book of his LGBT literary fiction series, author William Poe writes compellingly about his native Arkansas to pen a work of US historical fiction that finally includes the too-often-overlooked stories of gay and lesbian small-town Americans. Simon's Mansion is a moving coming-of-age story about a man finally figuring out how to grow up. EUREKA SPRINGS, ARK. (PRWEB)   SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 Simon didn't think he would ever go home again, but to plan for his future, he needs to face his past. For Simon, the family mansion in Arkansas is a part of him. He may have fled small-town life for a path that led to cocaine addiction, but he has found his way home. Now, all that's left is for him to face those he hurt along the way. As Simon navigates his constant internal struggle between faith and atheism, he must make decisions that will forever alter the course of his life. Simon Powell was a...

BookLife Prize 2019 Semi Finalist Plot/Idea:  10 out of 10 Originality:  10 out of 10 Prose:  10 out of 10 Character/Execution:  10 out of 10 Overall:  10.00 out of 10 Assessment: Plot : Though Poe offers a thoroughly compelling and propulsive plot, the author displays a somewhat impatient tendency to skim-over potentially rich scenes in favor of more slow-going descriptions and allusions. The novel's unexpected developments and narrative breadth, however, allow this work to resonate.  Prose : While at times Poe's abstractions can unnecessarily obfuscate the circumstances, the author delivers a finely tuned narrative with literary prose that is smooth, rich, and rhythmic in cadence.  Originality : What sets this book apart is its raw originality.  Simon’s Mansion  sensitively and realistically captures the struggles of a young man seeking truth and acceptance following a period of intense struggle. That the author dr...

Simon Says (ISBN:0615559573) 2013 International Book Awards in the category Fiction: Gay & Lesbian. Simple Simon (ISBN: 1477624996) WINNER! INDIEREADER DISCOVERY AWARD FOR LGBT FICTION 2016 Simon's Mansio n (ISBN:1729078435) Booklife Fiction Prize 2019 Semifinalist